During some surgical operations or other procedures, a portion of the body upon which surgery is being conducted may be substantially immobilized, such as, for example, a patient's head during head or neck surgery. Such immobilization of a patient's head, for example, may be accomplished with a fixture such as a skull clamp or other fixture, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,836,532, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ATTACHING ACCESSORIES TO A SURGICAL FIXTURE, issued Nov. 23, 2010, and in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0059064, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING A SURGICAL FIXTURE IN AN INTRA-OPERATIVE COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY SCANNER, published Mar. 11, 2010, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein. Other examples of cranial stabilization systems and components include any of the DORO products of pro med instruments GmbH of Freiburg, Germany. These and other devices may be used with cranial stabilization pins, also referred to as skull pins, which may be used to securely hold a patient's head within the skull clamp or other device.
It may be desirable to use such a cranial immobilization system or technique with a surgical procedure using intra-operative computed tomography (CT) scanning or other types of imaging (e.g., MRI, PEM, X-Ray, etc.). In some circumstances, it may be desirable and convenient for components of the cranial immobilization system to be compatible with the imaging technology, e.g. MRI, and further radiolucent. For example, it may be desirable that the skull pins be substantially or completely radiolucent and safe for use with MRI, yet still provide sufficient durability in use. While many surgical accessories and immobilization fixtures exist, it is believed that no one prior to the inventors has created or used the invention described herein.